The cat is out of the bag: How parasites know their hosts

Toxoplasma gondii is a remarkably successful protozoan parasite that infects a third of the human population, along with most mammals and birds. However, the sexual portion of the parasite’s life cycle is narrowly limited to cats. How parasites distinguish between hosts has long been a mystery. A ne...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: English, Elizabeth D., Striepen, Boris
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
Materias:
Primer
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6748446/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31487278
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000446
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author English, Elizabeth D.
Striepen, Boris
author_facet English, Elizabeth D.
Striepen, Boris
author_sort English, Elizabeth D.
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description Toxoplasma gondii is a remarkably successful protozoan parasite that infects a third of the human population, along with most mammals and birds. However, the sexual portion of the parasite’s life cycle is narrowly limited to cats. How parasites distinguish between hosts has long been a mystery. A new study reveals that Toxoplasma identifies cats based on a single fatty acid, linoleic acid. Experimental manipulation of fatty acid metabolism by drug treatment turns a mouse into a cat in the “eye” of the parasite. This new model enables genetic crosses of an important human pathogen without the use of companion animals and opens the door to future discovery.
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spelling pubmed-67484462019-09-27 The cat is out of the bag: How parasites know their hosts English, Elizabeth D. Striepen, Boris PLoS Biol Primer Toxoplasma gondii is a remarkably successful protozoan parasite that infects a third of the human population, along with most mammals and birds. However, the sexual portion of the parasite’s life cycle is narrowly limited to cats. How parasites distinguish between hosts has long been a mystery. A new study reveals that Toxoplasma identifies cats based on a single fatty acid, linoleic acid. Experimental manipulation of fatty acid metabolism by drug treatment turns a mouse into a cat in the “eye” of the parasite. This new model enables genetic crosses of an important human pathogen without the use of companion animals and opens the door to future discovery. Public Library of Science 2019-09-05 /pmc/articles/PMC6748446/ /pubmed/31487278 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000446 Text en © 2019 English, Striepen http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Primer
English, Elizabeth D.
Striepen, Boris
The cat is out of the bag: How parasites know their hosts
title The cat is out of the bag: How parasites know their hosts
title_full The cat is out of the bag: How parasites know their hosts
title_fullStr The cat is out of the bag: How parasites know their hosts
title_full_unstemmed The cat is out of the bag: How parasites know their hosts
title_short The cat is out of the bag: How parasites know their hosts
title_sort cat is out of the bag: how parasites know their hosts
topic Primer
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6748446/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31487278
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000446
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